Sunday, September 30, 2007

Sorry 'bout that folks. I just haven't been very bloggy lately. Nothing extraordinarily good nor bad. Just didn't feel like typing about it. Here's an update:

Race For the Cure was last week. Team Galatians 6:10 was small but mighty this year. We raised over $500. Donations are accepted 'til the 19th of October so if you'd like to give, click here. Cat walked it with me while her man Randy ran the thing. Holy cow! I know that it's only 3.1 miles but please, run it? Some of it's up hill, man! Truth be told, after last year I wanted to run it this year but that just didn't happen. Several reasons but we won't go there now.

Yesterday I went to tea with Cat & Kathy, our mentor-turned-dear-friend. We hadn't seen her in months so having tea turned into a 3 1/2 hour event. It was lovely. The tea was great (can't go wrong with a good English Breakfast), the food was tasty & the company was perfect. I love my girls! Now Cat & I hold our breath for the next Sewing Circle. We need our fix.

We saw Invincible on Friday. I don't like sports but I like sports movies. I dunno. Just do. Anyway, it was really good. The 1975 clothes were awesome & seeing Mark Wahlberg in 1975 hair is worth the rental fee alone (of course Jeremy & Dana rented it so that was even better).

Heroes is back on T.V. I love that show. I'm disappointed in every episode but I love it. Again, I dunno. We went to Daryl's house to watch it last week. We're going to Brendon's tomorrow. Remember we don't gots cable so we only gots snowy-vision.

I went back to work last week & am working on the 1st installment of A Christmas Carol. One of the original actors retired last year so they had it in this year's budget to rebuild her stuff for the recast. I get to do it early so when the normal build comes, I'll be done with her & just have the others to do. I think I'm pretty much booked through January work wise so that's great.

I sold one of my purses on Lucky Zelda. It was my 6th sale but my 1st one that was something I'd made. That was exciting. I'm getting a bunch of others ready to post & also have for a craft fair I'm doing in November (more to come on that later).

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Kaisara & I finally saw Wicked. I got our tickets for my birthday & Dana got her & Jeremy's for her birthday. Last Saturday the four of us went to dinner at The Clubhouse before heading up to Hollywood. Is that ever a decent drive? I think not.

As a side note, Dana & I both looked super hot in our new dresses.

Anyway, we really enjoyed the show. The set was ugly & I would have done a few things different as far as costumes go but other than that...it was super good.

Kaisara REALLY loved it. As we were walking out he said he could see it again right then. I have to say that the close of act 1 gave Dana & me a wicked (excuse the pun) set of goose bumps. I finally had to tell him to stop gushing over it since we just saw my show the night before that I'd been killing myself over for a month & he had nothing to say about that one. Sigh...

I thought the last scene was unnecessary. It would have been a much more tragic ending without it & therefore less of a crowd pleaser but it would have been truer to the book (of which I'm really interested in reading now).

I think that if/when the show is ever done on a community level the Dana MUST audition for Glinda. It was like watching Dana up there & I know she's got more than enough voice to pull it off.

Monday, September 17, 2007

My show is up and running. There wasn't enough theatre magic to get all of the costumes on stage for the first preview audience. But they were all up there for the 2nd. (Preview audiences are the first to see the show before the official opening. They get a discounted price with the understanding that the show may not be completely polished.) All of the costumes were however completely finished (100's of yards of trim and all) by the 5th preview (out of 6). So the day of opening was a complete breeze. I was even able to help the shop with the next show even though Amy had hired me for the week to work on any and all notes from A Little Night Music.

Kaisara & I went to opening night on Friday. I really enjoyed it. Musically and costume period-ly it's my favorite Sondheim that I've seen. Which isn't that many really. It's only beating out Into the Woods & Sunday in the Park With George. Story wise Into the Woods is my favorite. The story of this one is basically not being happy with who your with & sleeping with those you want. Not very moral but still a darn good show!

If you click on the link above you can follow a link to a slide show. Three of my costumes can be seen (on the slouchy girl with a big, blond, wig). My favorite costume didn't even get photographed let alone make it to the slide show. Probably because it's only on stage for 10 seconds. Anyway, in the slide show my costumes are, a turquoise chiffon robe, a light pink lace dress (in the background of 3 couples) and a peach with white lace dress (in that picture especially you can see my girl's stellar posture. AAAAAHHHHHH!)

At any rate, the magic of theatre got us to an easy opening night (we didn't even think that would've happened 1 1/2 weeks ago) and I'm fired for the week before returning to rebuild 1 actor's worth of costumes for A Christmas Carol. This week is to be filled with scrapping with my sis', pinning and finishing a quilt, scrapping with Katie, and getting more items on Lucky Zelda.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

It's just not gonna happen. I put in over 9 hours of overtime last week & over 14 this week. (awesome paychecks, btw). Our first audience is this Friday & opening night is the following. We're just not gonna finish. I know I've blogged about the magic of theatre before & how it always gets done. Those of you in theatre know what I'm talking about. But this show would call for a ocean liner full of fairy dust to get it up on time.

All last week we concentrated on getting act one wearable since their first dress rehearsal is today (not this Wednesday as would be normal). Totally plausible right? WRONG!! My actress has 5 costumes, 4 OF THEM ARE IN ACT ONE!!!! They wanna wear Act two by Tuesday. Act two?!?! It's literally still in pieces under my table & I've still got hours of cutting to do on it before I can have the thing sew together let alone wearable.

The good news (I guess it's bad news too) is that everyone is this far behind. It's not just me. We started this far behind. For the AD's to think that a shop of this size can built 75% of "A Little Night Music" in 3 1/2 weeks is insane. We're supposed to start on the next show this week. No comment. Just hire more people you say? We've no where to put them & no machines for them to sew on if we did. I had both of my minions sewing last week while I was cutting. I was at a point I need to sew a littlebut there wasn't an open machine anywhere. We're tripping over each other there's so many of us in the shop.

Wait 'till you see what I've been making, though. GORGEOUS!!! I'm really excited about them. My actress has been a total head case but at least she's hasn't been mean (except for complaining to stage management that we were "picking on" her). In our last fitting, she's head to toe in fabric that's barbie pink with silver sparkle with her decolletage for all to see & she complains that she looks like a boy. WHAT?!?!?! She wants more shape. BUT YOU WON'T LET ME LACE YOUR CORSET TIGHT ENOUGH THAT I CAN'T PUT MY ENTIRE ARM IN THERE WITH YOU!!!! Of course you've no waist. In an earlier fitting she was freaking out, literally gasping for air & breaking out in a cold sweat because her corset was "too tight". I was able to get my entire arm, with room to spare, in her corset with her to do some pinning. How is that too tight? And I don't gots small arms!

All-in-all though, it's totally awesome. I love what I'm doing. I love the people I work with. It's hard, it's stressful, it's scary at times and yet my spirit smiles for the blessing to do what I love to do. Thank you, Jesus for the opportunity. I try every day not to take it for granted.

Lucky Zelda Items

About Me

I've lived in Orange County all of my life. Though I'd love to see the world, this will always be home. I've been married to my best friend & support for 15 years. I am a follower of Jesus Christ & long to be more like Him. I consider myself a shy extrovert (if that's even possible). I have another blog for my business, Lucky Zelda at www.LuckyZelda.com